Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley told veterans during a ceremony in Des Moines Wednesday that more work needs to be done to correct the problems with long waits at Veterans Administration hospitals across the country. Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, says Congress did pass legislation to make improvements. “The Choice Program, that was created on August the second 2014 in that legislation, has been implemented in a way that makes it less helpful than was intended to the veterans who deserve the care,” Grassley says. Grassley says lawmakers have worked to improve things.

“Congress has stepped in to fix some of the shortcomings, but I am sorry to say more needs to be done,” Grassley explains. “I’m supporting legislation to clarify the intent of Congress that veterans should not have to drive more than 40 miles to take the care that they need. There is more that the V-A can do to make itself more user friendly.” He says it takes some time to make changes in such a large organization.

“I’ll bet 99 percent of the people who work for the V-A are good people, well intended. It’s just like in Congress — you can have one person do something wrong and it hurts the whole 534 members of Congress. You can have the same thing in any bureaucracy in government or any church or organization,” according to Grassley. Grassley says he spoke with the head of the V-A, the he says he needs more tools to deal with the problem people involved in the long waits.

“So, I’m supporting legislation that will give the secretary those tools. I’m also working with another senator to ensure that whistleblowers in the V-A are not retaliated against,” Grassley says. “Because if they had been listened to a long time before it became public, we wouldn’t have had the problems that we had.” Grassley made his comments at the annual state Veterans Day ceremony.

(Radio Iowa)